Timothée Chalamet’s Dune 2 Puts Oppenheimer to Shame with a $178M Opening
Dune: Part Two has surpassed every projection — and most other movies — in its opening weekend, dominating the worldwide box office with ease.
Summary:
- Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two collected $178.5M on its opening weekend, surpassing Nolan’s Oppenheimer by over $4M.
- The movie has great reviews, boasting a 93 and 95% Critic and Audience Scores on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively.
- Considering its current pace, there’s a likelihood of Dune: Part Two joining the billion-dollar club by the end of its run.
It’s not often that big-scale movies manage to break even on their production budget on their opening weekends. Scratch that; lately, many don’t break even after their entire theatrical run. Dune: Part Two broke this trend, however, as the movie’s opening weekend haul puts to shame even some of the MCU blockbusters.
How is Denis Villeneuve’s latest sci-fi masterpiece doing in terms of cash money?
Dune: Part Two Dominates the Box Office
From the very start of Dune 2’s theatrical run, the movie’s success has been obvious: its Rotten Tomatoes position hasn’t changed much, still comfortably sitting at 93 and 95% Critic and Audience Scores, respectively. With overwhelmingly positive reviews, Dune 2 was set for box office glory considering its run’s scale.
Indeed, Denis Villeneuve’s (certified) fresh film absolutely dominated both the domestic and the international box office on its opening weekend. With $81.5M from the US and $97M from the other countries, Dune: Part Two started its run with an impressive $178.5M total haul. Not bad for the first two days of the run, is it?
Dune: Part Two Has Stellar Projections
Considering that Dune 2 had a production budget of around $185M, the movie almost managed to reach it on the opening weekend. Of course, to truly break even, it will need to at least double that number, but with the current pace, it will do that in no time. The Dune sequel has some great projections going for it, and rightfully so.
The opening weekend of Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya ’s sensational sci-fi outing put not only many big MCU movies to shame; that’s not a huge achievement in the superhero fatigue era.
No, Dune: Part Two actually surpassed Christopher Nolan ’s Oppenheimer, too! As a quick reminder, Nolan’s magnum opus collected $174.2M worldwide in its opening weekend against Villeneuve’s slightly bigger $178.5M.
At this point, we should already start asking the same question we had last summer about Oppenheimer and Barbie: will Dune 2 join the $1B club? Place your bets now!